Winchester College - 6th form

[DreamyLemonBiscuit]

My daughter is considering Winchester college for 6th form for 2026 - does anyone have any experience of joining Winchester for A'Levels?
Is anyone able to tell me what number of new students join for 6th form? And if anyone has any knowledge of the online admission tests? And suggestions for how to prep for these? I did ask admissions but they were a bit vague.

Thank you.

No direct experience of being a girl at Winchester but I do have direct experience of being one of a small handful of girls at a boys’ boarding school and it ain’t pretty. The facilities and opportunities are not the same, and there is a level of fascination & objectification which is unhelpful to both boys and girls.

Sorry OP I’m fairly local and have some friends who worked there briefly, please don’t let her board and please visit and check for yourself, it’s got quite the repute bullying and a strong dislike of girls attending.

There are sooo many better and lovely settings for her, have you looked at st swithens also local?

Thank you for your response, sounds awful - can I ask if this is a recent experience? Winchester have just had a brand new boarding house built for the girls, it looks impressive - so I think if anything they have the better facilities and I'd hope they'd have access to everything else on a equal footing. They are also admitting 60 girls in 2026 - so hopefully a better ratio of girls to boys than you experienced.

@DreamyLemonBiscuit A while ago but the dynamics have played out the same in all the boys schools who have approached the coed situation this way over the years. A small minority of girls (>10%) means they get an disproportionate amount of attention (positive and negative) and it’s not healthy for anyone, boys or girls.

In terms of facilities and opportunities I don’t mean a shiny new conference facility boarding house (still not finished and long overdue, as for the last few years day girls’ have been given a few desks shoved together in a side room in a boys house), but that the range of things girls can do is not equivalent to those of boys, despite fees being exactly the same. For example, one of the staff told me that they don’t need to provide lacrosse, netball or hockey for girls as they are perfectly happy with cross country, the gym or no sport at all. (How convenient!) They don’t get the same opportunities for inter-school sport, as there are not enough of them to make up teams even if they had the right facilities and coaching, and also do not have the same opportunities to participate in inter-house competition which is a huge part of boarding school life. And of course, they are still not allowed in until 16 because of their sex so have missed out on the common academic grounding that most of the boys have.

But the worst thing is that girls at these schools are gaslighted into believing that it is a fabulous honour and privilege to be one of the elite few at last allowed in to the boys club, and so they put up with behaviours and situations that that would be completely unacceptable anywhere else.

My view: if a school wants to go co-ed, do it thoroughly and quickly. Whole school, aiming for 50/50 asap, and (if you want to charge the same fees for everyone) equal investment in all areas from the start.

Thank you - this is a very comprehensive reply and I appreciate your input. She doesn't participate in team sports so I don't think that would be a deal breaker. At the open evening we were told that the girls that were good enough at team sports (cricket and hockey) played with the boys, I was surprised by this and I guess confirms your thoughts.
Do you have other suggestions of schools we should look at? Thanks

I guess the best example of a school moving from all-boys to co-ed is Marlborough. It happened decades ago so all settled long ago. But the crucial factor was in integrating girls throughout the school and on equal terms, not as an add-on. Marlborough is a powerhouse for girls' education, and I don't hear anyone regarding the girls as second class citizens within the Marlborough community.

I strongly agree with @Ziegfeld and @reversegear on their concerns.

I am genuinely appalled (although sadly not surprised) that they said that to you @DreamyLemonBiscuit. Unless a 17 year old girl is competing at pro/national level (in which case she is highly unlikely to be at Winchester) there is no way she can play with 17 year old boys on an equal footing. That is just not an acceptable plan for girls provision.
I get that your daughter isn’t into team sports (I wasn’t much myself either) but that attitude that girls’ needs and opportunities are not centred - that they are kind of fitted in around boys needs and have to make do - always surfaces in other ways too, subtle and not so subtle.

I don’t know exactly what you are looking for in terms of region/needs but if you are SW-ish and all-girls is out, then look at Marlborough or Cheltenham perhaps? Cheltenham has a head who is absolutely committed to an even gender split all the way through and Marlborough is getting very close to evens. Canford also could be a good option. Or in the other direction, Wellington is just up the M3 and they have invested a huge amount to achieve gender equity in all areas.

I am curious as to why you are quite set on Winchester, unless you are local to the area and it's convenient or you're coming from a UK state school, in which case the funding may well be quite generous depending on your circumstances.
To my mind those seem good reasons for a girl to attend at 6th form, if you're certain you want to go co-education.

Other less valid reasons might be:

• Academics: it is sorely overrated. Results are boosted by the large numbers of very smart overseas kids that attend. The teaching (anecdotally) is pretty poor and whilst the Head is talking a good game on improving standards, there's actually very little she can do other than taking on more overseas pupils or offering large discounts to poach kids from elsewhere - i.e. window dressing.
• Co-education: the boarding house will be brilliant I'm sure. They've thrown money at this as they've done at the sports centre thanks to some generous and wealthy benefactors. However, I don't think the school - parents, boys or staff - have fully embraced co-education yet. To a lot of parents, the appointment of a female head seems again like a bit of window-dressing to persuade us otherwise, but I wouldn't want my daughter to be a guinea pig. The excellent deputy head pastoral who has led the move to co-education is also leaving - that might also be a clue.
• Culture: it has a reputation as a gentler school than some of the other boys schools. I wouldn't necessarily agree and it has more than the fair share of bullying that you'd expect at other schools. A lot of offers are turned down, so they are taking a lot of boys off the waiting lists who wouldn't have attended in previous years - many with behavioural issues. Our experience has been that they would rather keep the fee payer than expel a pupil which means a lot of behaviour gets swept under the carpet.

If you want co-education, there are a lots of schools an hour or so drive away much more established, closer to 50/50 and with teachers just as good as Winchester - Bradfield, Canford, Marlborough, Wellington to name a few in no particular order - are all worth exploring.

Thank you, yes I did see that the deputy head of pastoral was leaving, it is a real shame as I was impressed by her at the open evening. I also liked the new head of girls boarding.

I'm disappointed to hear that bullying is an issue. My personal experience was that bullying wasn't really a thing amongst 6th formers and I had (naively) assumed that this was the same for most schools - so that's certainly off putting. I wonder if there is a big influx of girls (I was told 10 day and 50 boarders for year 12) that this might change the dynamic, but as you rightly point out it's a bit of a gamble. I do think we may have got caught up in the history making without fully comprehending teething problems.

It wasn't that we are particularly set on Winchester - I had assumed it was academically challenging, I can't say we noticed a huge international contingent. We will look at the others you have suggested. Thank you for taking the time to list these.

Another parent has suggested boarding at Peter Symmonds - we are close but it's a 2hour round trip, so not that close to really want to do this daily. However, I am struggling to see the benefit of this as it looks huge, less than personal and the built environment looks a little lacking and uninspiring to me. But I do like the idea of a more flexible boarding option - they seem to have lots more freedom which I'm ok with for my daughter.

Thanks all for your input.

Another option could be Lord Wandsworth. Not such a big name but known for pastoral and offers flexi boarding.

Peter symmonds is state and vastly different to the ones listed, but is amazing and so well staffed.

@BeSharpRubyDeer
“The excellent deputy head pastoral who has led the move to co-education…”

I don’t think they have planned for/handled the move to co-ed well at all. I met her too and I can see why people might be impressed by her CV, but I think she was a window dressing hire. She either didn’t want, or was never given, the responsibility to ensure girls had the same opportunities.

There are some parents who rent in Cambridge or Winchester City centre now and the kids live together for Sixth Form and the parents supervise in turn. That is what my year 11 DD is reporting. A lot of her friends who were previously boarding are going day and parents renting too. Also WinColl always has boys leaving for Symonds, will be around 20 ish I reckon. Some local, others may rent too. There are various options for girls that won’t cost 60k a year. Sixth Form is very short as well, the Year 12 mocks come around fast. Of course they should exercise plenty but many girls who are focussed simply do not want to leave for 3 hour round trip fixtures at other schools.

I’ve found this thread completely contrary to the experiences of the girls I know who have attended/are attending. Family friends whose daughter has just left have persuaded her cousin to apply too and rave about her time there. She is planning on attending a pretty prestigious university too now, which I just don’t think was on the cards 3 years ago. I will ask for more insights though from her though when we meet in a few weeks.

Thank you - it's really helpful to hear from girls with direct experience. We were really impressed at the open evening and found the girls (and the boys) that showed us round to be really happy and well integrated.
if your friend has any insight into the online admissions tests we would be really grateful.
Thank you

@DreamyLemonBiscuit The girls that show you round will always talk a good game. They know what is expected of them and to an extent they have come to believe it. If you are told enough how lucky and privileged you are, you act like you are. That doesn’t make it true though.

To update; I didn’t see our family friend’s eldest daughter, who was out with her friends. However I did spend a lot of time talking to her parents. Their thoughts are:

1. they chose Winchester as they were London based and they wanted somewhere easy to access yet safer and a gentle introduction to more independence.
2. disappointed about pace of girls boarding houses initially, but their daughter says she preferred being part of a boy’s house. She hopes they keep the girls being part of the boys houses even whilst they have their own boarding houses.
3. suits academic girls, motivated and interested. Teaching in her subjects was a different level from her prior school.
4. no complaints about sports access, but frustrated that the sports centre didn’t open fully during her time there. She spent quite a lot of time in the gym last year, which was a new development for her.
5. made their daughter “come out of her shell”, they think that joining a boys school made the girls feel quite different but in a good way. Noted that the boys were in general quite different from her prior school and genuinely wanted to be friends. Dad said that he’d have been very defensive about his daughter dating boys, but after meeting his daughter’s male friends and (2nd year) boyfriend he “didn’t worry” as they were nice boys.
6. some results of boys they know was not as strong as they expected last year (2024), she thinks this has caused a bit of a shift change at WC towards focussing on better exam results in addition to the wider knowledge based learning. She loved div and debating so would be wary of this part diminishing.
7. I mentioned the privilege comment above and her parents say that of course they know they are privileged, it would be insane to think otherwise and the girls there (and boys) are very lucky. She was genuinely happy there though.

DD2 has just finished yr 10 and is applying. As I said above their DD1 has come out very strongly, I can imagine there are always some less happy parents for various reasons in every year. You have to pick the right school for your child and be open to all options. I have friends with children at other very famous schools which don’t get slated on mumsnet who are very unhappy, and some that are delighted with those same schools.

@WimpleDimple3

I don't understand why you are so invested in defending the school. You have third hand information from the child of a friend and you're writing at length here praising a school in which you have no obvious stake or particular knowledge. Why??!

OP: I'd reflect on comments by people who have actually had children attend the school.

@AmpleOchreCat I do have ds midway through at WC (starting A levels hopefully), but my experience there as a boy’s parent is not as relevant as a close friend whose daughter has just graduated. There isn’t a large cohort of graduated WC girls and I was at an event with my friend last Saturday and thought I’d get some direct insights from them. My initial impressions are due to having met quite a few of the girl cohort in the past year (18th party) and having been on holiday with the girl who has just graduated (who had another female WC friend with her). Does that clarify it enough? Apologies if it wasn’t clear initially. Third hand seems a bit of an odd comment btw, to be first hand under your definition I’d need to be a 18 year old girl and not a mum on mumsnet.

Working in FS in London and with a fairly large network of friends and family I know a pretty wide variety of parents at the “big” schools. It is a very active topic of conversation given the fees being paid. Not everyone is positive at all about the school their dc go to or have been through. I can confidently say that another historically boy’s schools that has taken on girls in the last 5-10 years has definitely struggled to integrate them, and I know some pretty peeved parents from there, so concerns about integration of girls into boys schools are very valid imo. But I also know parents of girls who went all through girls schools who aren’t happy with the final few years so it isn’t an easy answer.

@WimpleDimple3
I was not talking about financial privilege, yes the fees are astronomical and there are very few families that can afford it, that’s obvious.

I meant privilege in a very specific gender sense - that girls are conditioned to think that they are ultra special privileged ones because they are one of a handful of girls allowed in to the margins of a world previously reserved for boys, and therefore the absence of equal facilities or opportunities doesn’t matter. What you say about the boys houses is a classic example - that girls would prefer to be conversation pieces in a boys house (despite being essentially housed in a scruffy cupboard) than become part of their own house on a more equal footing to the boys.

In this day and age I think it is a scandal any school has set this toxic dynamic up, after all the decades of experience available from other schools that have learned the hard way.

Hi Ziegfeld. I’ve worked in some very male dominated environments (eg, trading floors), so am aware of and have experienced actual and implied sexism. I honestly don’t think that the girls I have met feel the way you have described. Apparently the new girls boarding houses are far better than any of the boy’s ones, so not a scruffy cupboard in comparison. The girls are confident, clever, dynamic types who want to make a change for A levels. To describe a girl who is enjoying being with a group of boys on an absolutely equivalent basis as a “conversation piece” is rather patronising to them surely.

Back in the day my brother's all boy boarding school took girls in the sixth form. When my parents enquired about my going there for the sixth form my brother's housemaster advised that the girls were just there for the boys entertainment and he wouldn't recommend it..

Our local coed boarding school is 33% girls all through and we decided against sending our daughter as it still felt like a boys school with girls using the sports facilities 'when convenient'. The fees are the same but the girls don't get the same level of sports provision...

Our son's all boy school is going co-ed starting with his year. 105 boys and 20 girls. Our son resents how much fuss is paid to the girls given the small number of them..

I'd really do some digging before sending a girl into a predominantly male environment especially boarding to check you are getting what you want.

@WimpleDimple3 @Ziegfeld

Do you know what the A level results were at Winchester on Thursday? Most schools published an announcement on Thursday but not Winchester.

@WimpleDimple3
The girls are saying they would rather stay as ornaments attached to boys houses. (And their own modern purpose built girls houses still haven’t been finished yet but that’s another story.) I have explained why that is.

Yes, I am sure these girls are academically very bright but as we all know, IQ doesn’t mean they aren’t vulnerable to gaslighting, manipulation, lack of confidence or mental health issues (including eating disorders), and this set-up does not help. Teenage years and extreme academic pressure are bad enough without being put in this kind of artificial, unhealthy situation.